Lemon Pastry Crust Blueberry Pie

Amazing lemon crusted blueberry pie needs no topper! This rich buttery lemon pastry crust is so easy. You’ll want to use it with other pie fillings too. Here it makes such a great combination with blueberries. To avoid a soggy crust I suggest baking the pie crust completely before adding the filling. You then can choose to add the uncooked sweetened berries and bake again, or you can choose to cook your berries stovetop and add to the baked pie shell.

There is no topper necessary for this pie but a dab of creme fraiche or whipping cream is always appropriate.

Recipe

10 inch Pie Pastry Crust

1 1/2 Cups all purpose flour + more for rolling surface
Scant 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 Cup + 1 Tablespoon of cold butter
1 Teaspoon crisco shortening or your fav
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 1/2 Teaspoons lemon zest
3 Tablespoons ice cold water

Whisk together the flour and salt in a large bowl.

Cut in the butter and shortening into the flour until crumbly. Hopefully your kitchen is cool to avoid the melting of the butter. If not, move quickly.

Mix the zest, juice and water and add to the flour/butter mixture.

The dough will come together quickly and will be only slightly sticky but will be soft. Flour your hands if needed before this process.

On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough 1 1/2 inches larger than your pie plate. The dough will be slightly fragile. Fold lightly floured round of dough, first in half and then in quarters.   Place the dough into your pie plate and unfold to fill the pie plate. Crimp edges.

Refrigerate the pie pastry crust for 30 minutes or longer.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

This pie crust will likely bubble up without precautions. Either add weights (use uncooked beans or rice if you haven’t pie crust weights) over parchment paper to the bottom of the crust, or lightly prick the crust bottom and sides every few inches.

Place cold crust into the oven and bake 10 minutes at 425 degrees. Then reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and remove the weights. If you didn’t use weights check for need to prick the crust further. Place back into the oven and continue baking until golden brown. If you didn’t use weights this baking time may be very short. Check frequently.

Remove the crust and allow to cool completely.

Method 1 Stovetop Pie Filling:

4 1/2 Cups fresh blueberries, picked over, stems removed and rinsed (frozen can be substituted without rinsing)
1 Cup sugar
1/2 Teaspoon salt
3 1/2 Tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 Cup water
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
Sprinkle of nutmeg or cinnamon (optional)
1 Tablespoon of butter

In a  large saucepan add 3 cups of the blueberries, juice and water.

Whisk together the dry ingredients and add to the berries. Mix.

Bring heat up to medium and continue cooking until the berries are thickened and begin to bubble.

Stir in remaining berries and the butter.

Set aside to cool. Bring temperature to almost room temperature. Spoon filling into the pie shell. Allow to rest before serving. Can be chilled to speed up process.

Method 2 Baking the Pie Filling:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Eliminate the water from the above ingredients. Do not precook berries.

Mix all ingredients except the butter together.

Place berry mixture into the cooled pie shell (cover the edges of the crust with foil to avoid over browning) and dot berries with the butter.

Place into preheated 425 degrees oven and immediately decrease the oven temperature to 350 degrees.

Bake 35 to 40 minutes.